Keeng Kumu: indigenous cartographer

Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
The Amazon Conservation Team partners with indigenous communities
to accomplish the work of protecting South America’s forests.
See how the mapping of ancestral lands in collaboration
with indigenous people is central to our conservation work
in this latest interactive map.

Special Podcast Episode with Julian Lennon: Listen Younger Brother

Julian Lennon, musician, photographer, and founder of the White Feather Foundation hosts this special episode of Maps, Magic, and Medicine about the Kogi indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Kogi community members discuss the importance of water, sacred sites, and protecting their ancestral territory and Julian Lennon reflects on the impact of his visit to the Kogi sacred sites and the lessons it imparted.

Honoring a Leading Commitment to Conservation in Concert with Indigenous Peoples

On September 21, 2017, in the company of indigenous leaders and ACT staff, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was honored at the National Geographic Society for his special leadership in environmental conservation and his commitment to the preservation of biodiversity.

The ceremony included a special presentation to President Santos by ACT and leaders from the Murui-Muina, Inga, Kamentsa, Kogi and Arhuaco indigenous communities commemorating the expansion and establishment of reserves in the Amazon, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Putumayo, and Caquetá.

Better Protection for Chiribiquete, Northwest Amazon’s Most Important Protected Area

On July 12, 2017, the Colombian National Land Agency approved the expansions of the Puerto Sábalo Los Monos Indigenous Reserve by 413,100 hectares and of the Monochoa Indigenous Reserve by 154,790 hectares. The twin expansions effectively connect the largest national park in the country, the Chiribiquete National Park, with the largest reserve, the Predio Putumayo Indigenous Reserve, creating a vast conservation corridor in the Amazon region linking near 10 million hectares of protected lands.

ACT Field Notes

Over five days in late January 2016, for ten villages along Suriname's upper Saramacca River populated by the nation’s Matawai Maroon community, the Avittiemauw Foundation and ACT led a workshop to enable the Matawai communities to continue their visualization of desired activities toward the proper development of their area.

ACT has launched a pilot project that provides older students with tablets so that they may gather and share audiovisual materials to expand their understanding of coursework. A special thanks to the students of Apetina for sharing the following festive video, the first produced with their new tools.

Representatives of indigenous and campesino communities from the Colombian Amazon, with support from ACT staff, participated last year in shared learning activities related to the sustainable management and use of native timber trees.

Despite conservation efforts, swathes of Brazil's Amazon forest are still lost to deforestation. Small-scale illegal logging can be difficult to monitor, even with satellite-imaging technology. Now, one indigenous tribe is looking to GPS mapping on smartphones to protect their forest.

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